Memphis@Sacramento: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Hello there Kings fans, let’s do a real quick breakdown of tonight’s exciting 127-116 overtime win over the Memphis Grizzlies. It was an great game for a home opener as there was little defense from either club and the uptempo style was exciting for the sellout crowd that cheered the Kings on. There were lots of good things that happened in this game, so let’s start there.

The Good:

Kevin Martin went for 48 points, five rebounds, four assists, four steals and one block shot in a whopping 52:27 minutes played. He went 14-of-27 from the field including seven three-pointers on ten attempts. I take back everything I said after the New Orleans game about his shot selection. Actually, I don’t, he still didn’t take 29 shots and was much better about getting his offense within the flow of the game. He was just awesome tonight and it was a much needed effort after he bared the brunt of the criticism after the Hornets game.

The bench was awesome tonight as Spencer Hawes, Beno Udrih, Omri Casspi and Andres Nocioni all put forward key efforts off of the bench. The Kings bench outscored Memphis 67 to 14.  That was the key to the game as the bench brought in energy and offensive firepower. This was clearly Hawes’ best game of the early season as he tallied 21 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, and two blocked shots. Beno steadied the offense when it was obvious that Tyreke wasn’t at 100%. He played all of the fourth quarter and the overtime and made several key buckets, including the game tying shot on a sweet pass from Spencer Hawes and Udrih made the backdoor cut with 1.5 seconds left in regulation. Casspi and Nocioni seemed to be everywhere in the fourth quarter and overtime as they grabbed several key rebounds, blocked some shots and also hit some key shots of their own.

The Bad:

All starters not named Kevin: The starting unit looked flat and out of sync.  That could be because two of the starters really shouldn’t be starting and Paul Westphal seemed to agree entering the second half as he sat Desmond Mason and Sean May in favor of Spencer Hawes and Omri Casspi to start the second half.  That ruined what was going to be tomorrow’s post where I questioned why Desmond Mason and Sean May were starting and what their role should be going forward. Now I will have to wait until next game to see what the plan is. Either way, neither player looks good out there and they aren’t offering the skill or the energy that Casspi, Hawes, and Nocioni brought off the bench tonight. Tyreke Evans was on the floor because it was the home opener and he was gutting out an ankle injury. It was nice to see him display some toughness in suiting up, so he gets a free pass this time. Jason Thompson doesn’t get a free pass, however, as he was just bad tonight. Thompson was outworked on both ends of the floor tonight as he didn’t move his feet on defense and was getting beaten badly on the glass. He fouled out with only five rebounds and seven points in a game where Memphis had two players, Gasol and Randolph, rack up 16 boards a piece and Rudy Gay grabbed another 13 for good measure. Sacramento was beaten up on the boards, losing 57-40 on the glass and they really could have used a better effort from Thompson. His play was probably more worthy of the “ugly category” tonight, but all of the starters not named Kevin were bad, so he stays in the bad category by virtue of camaraderie.

The Ugly:

Free-throw shooting. The Kings missed 13 free-throws in a game where they desperately needed each make. They can’t afford to give away the free ones in a game like this. Even Kevin Martin was not immune from the misses as he was 13-for-18 from the line and came up short on several. He also played all by 33 seconds of the game, so that may have had an impact. Either way, it something that must be improved up.

Overall it was a great win for the young club and it was nice to see a frenzied crowd at Arco. It was also nice to see the bench guys bring the energy as the real Spencer Hawes showed up and was a game changer and Beno Udrih got the job done despite losing his starting job in the preseason. They get Atlanta at home on Wednesday. Let’s hope the home crowd is as up for that one and that the Kings put forward a similar effort.